Comparing Bush to Eisenhower

Only from the narrowed perspective within the Beltway can George Bush be perceived as “like Ike,” as Washington columnist David Broder now tells us (“He’s Like Ike,” Op-Ed Page, Sept. 13).

Both Presidents floundered with the details of government, but there the similarity ends. The good gray presence we perceived in the general by no means comes through at this distance in the Bush case. Instead, what comes through is the hasty opportunist, unable to plan a campaign or establish goals, but ever given in his desperation to the quick snatch . . . hardly the Eisenhower pattern.

The flag-burning episode was pure Bush. He was initially indifferent to the matter when the Supreme Court handed down its OK. But then, no doubt, one of those handlers who made his campaign so shameful got to him, with the flag amendment suggestion, packaged in the Iwo Jima memorial, etc. Now everybody knows that the excitement is dying down, that nobody really wants to “tinker with the Constitution,” and possibly that Bush cares no more now than he did the day of the decision.

We’ve already devised the epitaph for George Bush’s headstone: “He always wanted to be President but he never knew why.” In contrast, Eisenhower spent most of a lifetime not wanting to be President . . . and knowing why.

DAVID ALAN MUNRO

Laguna Beach